LONDON (Reuters) - Britains intelligence services are investigating an Islamist Web site that says it is establishing a branch of al Qaeda in Britain, BBC television reported on Tuesday.
According to the report, security experts fear a posting on the site, www.alekhlaas.net, declaring "the creation of the al Qaeda organization in Britain" may be genuine.
"You dont ignore this sort of thing," Pauline Neville-Jones, the former head of the British joint intelligence committee, told the program.
"It may not be a threat from an existing cell... but it does represent a move in the propaganda game and the propaganda game is not something we should ignore. This is after all a struggle over ideology."
The posting urges young Muslim men to rise up against infidels such as "(Prime Minister Gordon) Brown and (Tony) Blair." It was put up on January 2.
Britains Home Office (interior ministry) and security services were not immediately available to comment on the TV report or site.
In July 2005, Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 people in coordinated attacks on Londons public transport system.
Last June, two men attempted to blow up cars loaded with gas canisters, fuel and nails outside a London nightclub, and a fuel-laden car was driven at speed into Glasgow airport before the assailants were subdued by passers-by.
Newsnight said there was no way of knowing how serious the declaration on the Web site was, although it mirrored the language used on other well-know militant sites that have carried declarations by al Qaeda and its affiliates in the past.
The site hosts a catalogue of Islamist messages, musings and writings, and has been visited by more than 17 million people.
(Reporting by Luke Baker; Editing by Robert Woodward)
No comments:
Post a Comment